Oldies but Goldies! Twenty Years After, the Journal of Sports Economics at a Crossroads?

The present article first delineates core sport economics and compares the content of the Journal of Sports Economics (JSE) in different periods of time, then with other core publications in sport economics. Finally, a comparison is undertaken with articles in sport economics which have been published in generalist economics journals over the past two decades. A major conclusion is that the JSE appears to be the mainstream journal in quantitative sport microeconomics. Other strengths and weaknesses are exhibited and tentatively explained, including a marginal attention paid to non-microeconomic issues in sport and some other unheeded topics. A final conclusion is geared toward options for the editorial policy in the decades to come.

Knowledge production on sport economics: a systematic review

The study analyzes the scientific production that deals with the economic activity of the sport. This is a systematic review that evaluates scientific papers published in the last Olympic cycle (2012-2016) in national and international journals, in English, Spanish and Portuguese, indexed to the Portal of Journals of Capes (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel). From the content analysis, 355 studies were examined that, despite their diversity, were grouped into 16 categories. The considerations suggest an ample process of commercialization of the sport as a cultural commodity and, also, vehicle of sale and propagation of other products.

Handling heteroskedasticity in labour demand functions of athletes

Based on previous research it can be stated that modelling sport economics related demand curves (e.g. demand for sport events and athletes) is different from other types of modelling. The difference lies in the fact that some parts of the demand curves are nearly horizontal in case of sport goods and nearly vertical in case of athletes, because the price of sport events is inflexible and at the same time, salaries of top athletes are extremely flexible. This study investigates parameter estimation methods appropriate for the relevant demand functions of sport economics. In this cases the generally used ordinary least squares estimator is less robust, so the weighted least squares estimators are able to handle heteroskedasticity. If the distribution of the variables is known, the Newey-West heteroscedasticity corrected estimates give even stronger results. The empirical study analyses footballer transfer fees in top European leagues and identifies a threshold at which the traditional supply-demand functions are not appropriate. According to the results, word class athletes, in a way, can be considered prestige goods for which demand may be irrational.

Consumer Demand for Telecasts of Tennis Matches in Germany

The research presented here aims to fill the existing gap in empirical research on demand for individual sports. A unique data set on audiences for live broadcast tennis matches from Germany, as Europe’s biggest and most competitive TV market, is analyzed. The results indicate that canonical approaches of empirical sport economics can be fruitfully applied to individual sports. Consumers prefer prestigious competitions, relevant matches, highly ranked, and German players. The findings suggest that the German tennis industry needs to provide national tennis stars in order to revitalize the interest of major networks and audiences.

TV Sports Viewers – Who Are They?

This article reports on empirical data from Norway which indicates that popular sports contests are also popular TV programmes. Individual sports, such as biathlon and cross-country skiing headed the popularity list, while football and ski-jumping came joint third. However, although football (only) came third, a higher proportion of football fans were willing to pay for watching it on TV than fans of other sports. This can explain why football has been the most successful sport pay-TV in Europe. Those interested in football were more interested in cultivating their favourite teams/athletes than fans of other sports. The analysis also indicates that the uncertainty of outcome is not as important for peoples’ interest in sport as the literature in sport economics has argued.